OPAPP looks forward to more milestones in peace process in PNoy’s last year in office

MANILA – With less than a year left in the Aquino
administration, Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Teresita
Quintos Deles said the government remains committed and is looking
forward to reaching more milestones in the Bangsamoro peace process.“We are not just counting the days left in the administration, but
instead we are looking at what we still have left to do in terms of the
peace process, especially the Bangsamoro peace process. We look forward
to even more milestones as our term winds down,” Deles said.“We want to be able to end our term clearly saying that we have
achieved as much as we could in terms of our goal of ending all internal
armed conflicts,” Deles added.Government peace panel chair Prof. Miriam Coronel-Ferrer on the other
hand said that the last year of the Aquino administration presents an
opportune time to look back at the milestones in the Bangsamoro peace
process.“As we buckle down to work in this last year, it would be also
helpful to look back and reflect on what we have achieved in terms of
bringing peace and development to Mindanao,” Ferrer said.“Of course the signing of the Framework Agreement and the
Comprehensive Agreement are two of our biggest milestones,” Ferrer
noted.The Framework Agreement, signed October 15, 2012, was dubbed as the
first historic milestone in the Bangsamoro peace process under the
current administration. After nearly two years of continuing
negotiations it was followed by the Comprehensive Agreement, signed
March 27, 2014, which successfully concludes over 17 years of
negotiations and signals the end to the decades-long conflict between
the government and the MILF.For this breakthrough, Ferrer, the first woman in the world who
signed as chief negotiator in a major peace deal, received the Hillary
Clinton award for Women, Peace and Security given by Georgetown
University last April.The CAB is composed of the FAB, four annexes and one addendum, and
previous agreements since 1997 when the peace talks began. The
Bangsamoro Basic Law, which is the legal iteration of the CAB, was
submitted to both chambers of Congress on September 10, 2014 and is
currently awaiting passage and popular ratification.“We also anticipate the passage of the Bangsamoro Basic Law in
Congress by the third quarter of this year, which we will be the next
major milestone in our roadmap,” Ferrer added.Earlier, Ferrer lauded the leadership of the lower House for its
continuing support to the passage of the BBL while noting that people
are anticipating the submission of the substitute bill of Sen. Ferdinand
“Bongbong” Marcos so that the process of plenary deliberations in the
Senate can move forward.Milestones in the normalization trackAside from the signed peace agreements, Ferrer also noted
the milestones in the normalization track of the Bangsamoro peace
process.“Just last month we witnessed the turnover of 75 high-powered and
crew-serve weapons and the decommissioning of 145 MILF combatants. We
are preparing the next steps in the decommissioning process as we move
forward on the legislative track,” Ferrer said.Decommissioning is part of the total transformation program of MILF
from being an armed group into a social movement and a political
party. The process is crucial in enabling MILF combatants to return to
peaceful and productive civilian lives, and the development of their
communities.“After undergoing training on development planning, the MILF base
commanders who sit in the six task forces on MILF Camps Transformation
and their government counterparts in these joint bodies, are now
identifying the requirements to implement specific priority projects
like feeder roads, water supply system and electricity supply lines,”
said Ferrer.In addition, trainings for the next batches of the Joint Peace and
Security Teams (JPSTs) are being set. The first batch of 30 JPST – 15
men from the MILF’s Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF) and 15 men
from the Philippine Army and the police – are now deployed in the Arms
Storage Site for the decommissioned weapons in Camp Iranun, Maguindanao.
The JPST helps the Norwegian-led team of the Independent
Decommissioning Body guard the arms storage site.Milestones in development, transition preparations“We have also launched the Bangsamoro Development Plan or BDP last
November 2014, a milestone in putting in place the long-term blueprint
for development in the Bangsamoro,” Ferrer noted.The BDP is a six-year plan formulated by the Bangsamoro Development
Agency to provide a medium- and long-term vision and strategy for the
recovery and development of the areas covered by the proposed Bangsamoro
region.The Sajahatra Bangsamoro continues to be rolled out in Bangsamoro
communities since it was launched on February 2013. The program, which
has been extended to June 2015, is jointly implemented by both the
government and the MILF.The Sajahatra Bangsamoro program has health, education, and
livelihood program components. In June 2015, reported accomplishments in
terms of education component include: all 639 target beneficiaries
enrolled under the Commission on Higher Education’s Study Grant Program
for academic year 2014-2015; provision of 1,000 vocational trainings by
TESDA; and DepEd provision of DepEd grants to 44 madaris (Islamic
schools). On the health component, accomplishments include: provision of
PhilHealth health insurance premiums to all 11,000 beneficiaries;
supplementary feeding program provided by the DSWD to 11, 032
beneficiaries, construction of daycare centers, and Cash for Work
programs for 11,000 beneficiaries; and completion of DOH Barangay Health
Stations in various Bangsamoro communities. For the livelihood
component, the Department of Agriculture provided six communities with
farm tools, equipment and farm animals while the DENR undertook a
greening program for 745 hectares of lands to augment the income of 150
households.“In terms of the transition, the Coordination Team for the Transition
(CT4T) will serve as our primary mechanism that would facilitate a
smooth transition from the ARMM to the Bangsamoro Transition Authority
(BTA), or the period between the plebiscite and the 2016 elections,”
Ferrer explained. On November 2014, the Terms of Reference for CT4T was
signed by both government and MILF panels.“All these milestones were made possible because of our people’s
support and willingness to work for peace, and because of the strong
resolve of this administration and the MILF to permanently end the war
and bring peace and development to Mindanao. We are confident all these
will translate to even more milestones for the peace process, and better
lives for our sisters and brothers in the region” Ferrer said.